Tamsin Cooper’s letter

Read the letter we sent Tamsin Cooper here.

Dear Sarah,

We wish to respond to your letter in Issue 31 of Good regarding “Who makes your clothes”?

We would like to give your readers an insight into how our clothing and fashion accessories are manufactured.

This year our brand “Tamsin Cooper” celebrates 10 years, we design luxury, limited edition fashion accessories and clothing. All the embroidery and beading is exquisitely hand stitched using traditional techniques onto beautiful silk fabrics creating timeless pieces to be worn and loved by women.

Over the last decade we have forged a close relationship with the two manufacturers of our designs who are based in Hanoi in the North of Vietnam.

We have attached a letter directly from our fashion accessory manufacturers about their staff and working conditions. We are immensely proud to work with such a caring and responsible company in the production of our designs.

Dear Tamsin,

Thank you for your email.

Please see our reply as below:

We have about 40 full-time employees and about 200 part-time employees. Full-time employees work in our company and workshops. They have all the benefits as specified in the labor law in Vietnam such as health insurance and social security. They have 12 day annual leave. We serve lunch for our employees. The average tenure of our employees are 6 years. The employee who has the longest tenure in our company has been working in our company for 17 years. Every year we organize a vacation for all employees and their families.

Our part-time employees work for us from their house. Many of them are from villages, which have some traditional skills such as embroidery. We pay them well above the average wage.

We are proud that we provide the jobs for the part-time employees because we help them have reasonable income without having to go to big cities for employment and we help them to keep and capitalize on the traditional skills to make a living.

Thanks and kind regards,

Phuong

Tamsin Cooper limited edition velvet coats are made by a separate company who are a small family tailoring company. They have around 20 employees who sew up the garments, however each of our garments usually has hand embroidered or hand beaded detail applied to it so this work is out sourced to traditional embroidery villages on the outskirts of Hanoi.

These villages have been working in their traditional craft for around 1000 years and they also tend to their communal farms when not working on their craft. When we last visited, the head of the embroidery workers said that the more work we could put through their village the better as it gave them the choice to stay and work in their village rather than having to leave and work in factories in the city. The embroiderers work out of a large house that has a beautiful view over the rice fields that they tend. In the hotter months they work with large windows open to the outside and sit down on a cool tiled floor under their embroidery frames.

By employing embroidery villages we are helping to keep a traditional craft alive. The talent and skill of these incredible craftspeople ensures that the workmanship of any Tamsin Cooper product is of the highest quality.

A goal for the future is for “Tamsin Cooper” to become a certified Fairtrade brand.

Yours sincerely,

Tamsin Cooper
Design Director